Did you Know? How does the Antibiotic Amoxicillin work?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I bet if you have lived in the UK for most of your life, you have only known a few antibiotics in your life (hopefully), and most notably Amoxicillin. Why is it always that one that GP prescribe? How does it work?

How does Amoxicillin work?
Amoxicillin is what we call a β-Lactam antibiotic (fig.1). Most β-lactam antibiotics work bystopping the production of the "peptidoglycan" layer of bacterial cell walls (See figures 2 and 3 here below). This cell wall layer is important for structural integrity (fig3), especially in "Gram-positive" bacteria (fig.2), because it is the outermost and primary component of the wall. The last step in this "peptidoglycan" chain production is supervised by an Enzyme abbreviated PBP. A β-Lactam antibiotic is similar in structure to the last building block of the cell wall, taking its place in the structure. Because the PBP enzyme recognises it as if it was a proper brick, the Antibiotic inhibits the completion of the cell wall construction, therefore making the bacteria unviable and starting a process of auto-destruction. Some bacteria have changed themselves to  make themselves resistant, either by attacking the β-Lactam ring of the antibiotic (fig.1) which is essential for the recognition with the PBP enzyme, or by modifying PBP so it's less sensitive to the antibiotics (like MRSA has).

Figure 1: The Beta-Lactam antibiotic with its Beta-Lactam ring (the square!)

Figure 2: The difference between Gram + and Gram - bacteria. Look out for the Peptidoglycan layer.

Figure 3: How the Peptidoglycan wall builds up

If you are interested in more fast read sexy facts, check out SSS Did you Know series for previous posts.

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,